Dear All

Well here we are watching the film Hellboy and busy worrying. No pictures tonight just a few thoughts

My mistress has been out at a most fantastic barbecue in the heart of Dreaming Spires country Good company, good food with the River Thames running at the bottom of the garden. There were so many wild plants including one called Lords and Ladies which has wonderful scarlet berries so bright that you can't miss even one in the hedgerow. It is so remote that although the estate has electric gates for protection you were almost left wondering why. No passing burglar would find it, they would have to be particularly dedicated.One ceratinly does not live there - one resides!

Then home to clearing out the downstairs and finding there is not enough room upstairs to put everything. We have the damp course being put in and that means a whole lot of drilling dust and disruption.

I live in a very old kennel/house which needs constant repair and attention but my mistress and I love the old girl dearly (This is definitely a female house/kennel, she is very pretty).She has a lot to offer. Cosy, compact, a tall brick house built on much older foundations dating back to a forteenth centuary. She is definately has a comfortable atmosphere which welcomes you as soon as you come in.You get the impression that this house is keen to look after you. I think she will feel better for the repairs done to her walls although it must be like having surgery.

On a more personal note one of my mistress's family is very ill and she is deeply worried. So am I. This aunt is a kind and generous woman - who my mistress has never known life without and although she has no great love of animals, we make too much mess, she has always been very good to me. There is very little that we can do here other than wait and watch and hope that she will get better soon. You can never measure how precious family, friends and home are until you look like you will loose them

Well that is it for now

TTFN

Samwise

The Good In Every Dog

Good Evening Everyone

No photos this week but a report on an excellent article

My mistress usually buys The Lady Magazine each week. This a magazine that has been published since the stone age and can be pretty bland non taxing reading but sometimes it has one of those articles that just sticks in your mind.

If you get chance have a look at Graeme Simms site www graemesims.com. The man is a dog whisperer and his story is an inspiration. From being unemployed and broke at fifty the man has found himself a profession of shepard and whisperer which is useful and a place among the hill farmers community.

He is worth taking notice of if only for the fact he puts forward the idea that every dog has a lot of good in them, more than people admit to. My mistress and I have been say this for years. There is never a bad dog just bad owners and if the dog is aggressive or bad it is because the dog is ill

Well that it for now folks

Take care of yourselves and your owners

TTFN

Samwise

Roll Rite Stones

Good Evening All

Well here we are, another two weeks gone by and it hardly seems any time at all.

The weather has been fantastic and far too hot for me and my mistress. My heart's been going like jack hammer and I have had to have my own personal fan to keep cool at night. My mistress has been just wilting.

It's has been quiet in comparison with the flying trip last blog.

The most interesting thing to date is that my mistress went up to the Roll Rite Stones in Oxfordshire with Himself. It must have been the hottest day in the year so far and they went with friends for a picnic.

The Roll Rites have an interesting story. A witch promised an ancient king that if he could see a certain hill from where he stood he would win an important battle. It looked as though he would but the witch played a trick on him and he what he saw was not the hill he was supposed to and so he lost his battle and he and his knights were turned to stone. The witch turned herself into a bleeding elm tree to watch over them. It is said that if you can count the stones and come to the same number three times then you may make a wish but the stones never make the same number twice.

At home we managed to take a great photo of my friend Ringo as in Ringo Dozy Paws

and a rather nice one of me. What do you think?

Well that's it for now

Take care of yourselves and your owners

TTFN

Samwise

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee

Hello Everyone

An earlier blog than for a little while but then my mistress has done something really rather exciting - and she managed to take pictures too

Mistress Winter went gliding!!. I couldn't go but as promised she took pictures to show me and I heard her commentery over the twilight bark zone. My mistress is not great with any kind of actual travel so the idea of flying in an aircraft with no engine was somthing of a challenge.

It was an event set up by a local business club Mistress Winter belongs to and originally she had booked for Himself to go only but a day earlier she found that the organiser had made a mistake and booked them both in to fly. My mistress thought about it for a few minutes and then decided to face the worry and see if she could get over it. After all she had flown since she was three in tiny island aircrafts which seemed little more than taxi's with wings.

As it happened nerves about flying weren't the problem. It was motion sickness. My mistress hadn't flown for a while going everywhere by train or road and it wasn't until she was getting into the glider that she remembered that she sometimes used to get sick. Definately nothing you could do about it at that point - not even worth mentioning - so she didn't.

Take off veiw

Somewhere over Mixlow

When she came down she did look a rather interesting shade of green and everyone congratulated her on being brave but, as she told me it wasn't the ascent and flying she was proud of so much as not throwing up over the pilot. That took some doing. She and I were very pleased to see each other afterwards.

Anyway hope you enjoyed the pictures - apparently the next outing is tank driving. My mistress says she's looking forward to that event much more!!.

Meanwhile take care of yourselves and your owners


TTFN

Samwise

Well a very good evening to you all

Time has flown again and we are into another blog. As like last week my mistress is exausted again - and she's meant to be on holiday!. The problem is, it is very difficult to have a holiday when you work for yourself - but she has got a heck of a lot done!

I have been trotting around doing my job of entertaining the old folk round here, letting them scratch my ears and tell me how handsome I am.I really enjoy their company and it is nice for them to have me to make a fuss of if they don't have a dog of their own I think.

I met up with other dogs this morning for a doggy meeting Cara the big boxer and Tyler the little Beagle Lucy the black lab managed to out run her owner by quite a way which impressed us all. She was very patience waiting for her mistress to catch up.

My mistress came back with two good anecdotes from work this week.

As you know she works in a shop and two well heeled parents came in and while they were buying various remedies for different memebers of the family their mobile phone went off. The father answered it and laughed loudly saying 'just make sure you get the money'

He came back to describe to his wife the following conversation from the son

'I am in trouble - but not much and I am not much hurt - but you will be getting a call from my teacher'

It appears that for sponsering the son squeezed himself in the smallest bin in the school and rolled down a local slope while his friends filmed the event. As only five of his friends fwere there, the boy did again and this time the teacher caught him.

His mother rolled her eyes to the ceiling and said to me 'I wouldn't mind but he's not raising funds for charity - he wants to raise money for a pop concert'

But as the boys father said his son hadn't harmed himself or anyone else so what had the teacher to complain about (I did refraine from mentioning the number of grey hairs of responsibility this pupil will have added to her collection)

I admired the father for being so relaxed about things and his son for being so enterprising. My parents were lovely but not half so fun loving

On the same day a young man came in looking slightly bewildered saying could he buy our flowers and their vasefor props for a film set. I said no because they were part of the shop fittings. Half joking I said he could hire them - which he promptly did for £20. As I said to the boss - I made a reasonable profit.

These even got me smiling. I hope they have you

One more thing. I have my own herb bag for my beds of mint and sage - and it smells fantastic.Really fresh for an old boy like me.

So that's it for the moment, I'm off for dinner

Have a great few weeks and look after each other

TTFN

Samwise

The Late Late Post

Good Evening Everyone

First many apologies for missing last weeks blog. My mistress and I have been stunningly busy (she doing - me having my ears bent - I believe its part of a dogs job!) Also Mistress Winter has not been particularly well so we have had to take it easy.

Since the weather has been so strange we have had the second harvesting of the herbs already (although some wretched snail has completely desimated my sweet basil). Good thing having morrocan mint ready to hand for the mistress, well recomended for sickenss.

The other ingredient to a steady digestion has been Aloe Vera. Apparently tastes 'interesting' (in other words foul) but does give long term energy something my poor mistress needs in spades at the moment. The really ironic thing is that despite being quite unwell my mistress was being told she looked radient - and she felt like she'd been shoved through a hedge backwards.

My misterss heard a story from a local nurse who also served in the TA that Aloe had been used on very badly burned patients after a bomb attack with great effect - even though the surgons e were adement that it wouldn't work and livid that their methods and medicines were not being used. It wasn't even as if the Aloe was being used instead of.

Now we have been looking at cameras as well you know - and we still haven't decided on anything. However we have been taking photos on my phone - and we are still learning how to down load them. When we do there hopefully will be a lovely one of myself and Ringo Dosey Paws the golden lab that bounced all over me until I told him I'd bounce all over him if he didn't stop. He has been very good since then and he now great company - and distinctly less bouncey.

Well that's it for now, Heres to enjoying life!!

Samwise

Walking To The Stones

Dear All

It's been a beautiful day. Very windy but very sunny

We went up to the stones at the edge of Mixlow. It must be understood that the stones are not ancient. They were put up by the local builder and there is certainly no sacred grove leading up to them but it is a very nice quiet space and a good focal point to a walk.

We found this man - made lake on the way which I thought was rather lovely

But onwards with our walk

Ah here we are

Oooh lets have a lie down

Ok we've seen them, let's go home

Sharing the red sofa with my mistress and a cup of tea

You may remember we were going to get a camera this week. My mistress did go to the local camera shop to look at some but there was so much choice that she left without making a decision. Too much info from an over - keen sales assistant, always off putting. So we used Himself's phone Any ideas for a good,basic digital camera - that doesn't cost the earth.

It has been a busy week again and my mistress had to fight to get time to look at her herbs. Some of the mint had even wilted through need of attention, including the chocolate mint but she saved it and managed to plant new mint which she bought in Saffron Waldon while visiting a friend (sorry no pictures since her phone camera is still out of order) Having lost a previous plant,she managed to replace her morrocan mint, the best for making mint tea. Mistress Winter had found the most fantastic herb stall at the local market. It sold nothing but herbs including unusual ones such as catmint and valarian. She took the opportunity to buy sweet basil which she had not been able to plant earlier in the year. Have you ever smelt freash basil? It is sublime isn't it?. Is there any reason why anyone hasn't made soap out of it?

Also this week she harvested the first of her herbs and then was faced with the problem with what do you do with all this mint? Well make sachets (she even embroidered a couple of them) and stuff them into the pockets of every garment that is in store and shove into all the bed linen so that everywhere there is the faint smell of mint. Put velcro on the top and you can always supply fresh mint.

The other option is to make the old fashioned drink mint julip which is the perfect summer drink.

Life is sweet,friends,music and herbs and I get to hear about it all.

Well that is it until next week. You never know she might have got a new camera by then and then there will be no stopping us!

Until then TTFN and remember to look after your owners

Samwise